Is 15 weeks, and 60 episodes away!!!

I feel Stan will die in this episode. January isn't it? That's when he's leaving.

what day and date will it be ? will be around the anniversary won't it?

edit worked it out roughly depends on how many xmas episodes there will be but I get around 2nd feb which will be a monday

reckon they will have a twist to the lucy reveal that happens two weeks later

Thursday, January 15th, taken into account Christmas' double episode!

It probably around like january and we have the anniversary coming as well so many things will be happening during dec to feb.

I have just counted 60 episodes on the calendar twice and done the 15 weeks, I still get 2nd of feb. but I wasnt sure if xmas was a double episode as its an hour long rather than two eps normally. not sure how that works

I looked on the wiki and saw that on 10th October it was the 4940th episode, and did it that way. Are you counting from today's date?

could there be extra episodes on christmas eve and new years eve

I counted from tomorrow up to 60 using mon, tues, thurs and friday

and yes because lou said 60 episodes off. didnt look at wiki

I doubt it. Any more double episodes would plummet the EE crew out of schedule.

Yep, you need to count from 10th October, not today. it was 60 from that episode. It will be January 15th.

I think an hour long episode is usually counted as two, even if it was written as an hour long episode and not just two episodes stuck together.

Also, yes there should be an extra episode for Christmas Eve, not sure about New Year's Eve as it usually rates quite low so there's no point adding an extra with not many aren't going to watch it.

I think it's two episodes on Christmas Day. One earlier, and one later.

with doctor who in the middle

hopefully corrie or emmerdale will be on itv then

We don't know what's happening on Christmas Day yet. Won't know until last November/early December. Airing as two episodes or as an hour, either way it will still count as two episodes.

If there's an extra episode on Christmas Eve and two episodes on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, but no extra episode on New Year's Eve, the 5000th episode should be Monday 19th January, which works out well as that's exactly a month before the anniversary. I think using the 5000th episode to kick off the final month of the Lucy storyline would be a great idea, would be a good time to really start all the 30th promotion as well.

(I went off Radio Times saying that the episode on 31st October is the 4952nd btw.)

Christmas & New Years Eve are Wednesdays. We might not see an episode at all.

In 2011, Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday but there was still an episode of EastEnders. In 2008, it fell on a Wednesday like this year but again there was still an episode. BBC often do a special schedule for Christmas Eve (accept last year where they just their usual Tuesday schedule and everyone complained), so I think there will definitely be a Christmas Eve episode.

They didn't, however, have a New Year's Eve episode either years, probably for the reason I said earlier, things rate poorly on NYE so why make an extra episode for then. They'll air one when NYE falls on one of EE's regular days but won't make any special effort.

Why are people counting? It's just a epaiode. They will find out soon enough when and if they do something to celebrate. There's no need to count it's just a tv show and there's more to life.

There's more to life than counting down the days to Christmas but it's exciting and I don't necessarily go 'what a waste of time' afterwards.

It's not been like that for at least 5 years. It's usually one hour long episode on Christmas Day

When they merge two eps to make a one hour one they usually count them as two separate episodes still, two writers are credited and each half retains its own episode number, which is why they count them as two. The merged ones are often merged at the last minute for scheduling reasons. If an episode is planned to be one hour long from the outset then it will count as one episode.

I'm not too sure, would they really use Stan to celebrate it? I was thinking more Dot, Ian, Sharon, Nick, Phil, Carol, Kat, etc...

I'm pretty sure that isn't the case. New Year's Day was an hour, written by Carey Andrews, but was counted as two to by Radio Times (as they skipped an episode in their count for the next episode). I'm sure they did the same for Christmas Day. I wish I could provide a link but the earliest episode on their website is 4786, which aired on 15th January.

Also having the 5000th episode exactly a month before the anniversary seems like something they'd want to happen, I wonder if they even somehow planned it that way.

I don't see them tying the 5000th episode in with the 30th, though. I think the episode will circulate around Stan's death and something for the Beale's.